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Paradise Now

I have Mariella Frostrup to thank for putting me onto Paradise Now as the first I heard of it was when she mentioned it in an article in the same breath as The Kite Runner.

As regular readers of this newsletter will know, I absolutely adored the latter, so that was recommendation enough for me.

The film, which was nominated for a Best foreign film Oscar a couple of years ago, concerns the lead-up to, but especially the aftermath of, an aborted suicide bombing.

The intended 'martyrs' are two Palestinian friends who have grown up together in the West Bank; the intended target obviously the Israelis. It is clearly a very political subject, but what I liked about it was, like The Kite Runner, it concentrated very much on the personal - the daily lives of the two friends, their motivation for wanting to take part in such a mission, their doubts etc.

In fact, it is the mundanity of so much of what goes on, the ordinariness of their lives that gives the film its impact.

It doesn't seek to pass judgement on the men's actions nor even really explain them. It just shows them for what they are- and makes you really think about a subject that is sadly an inescapable part of too many people's daily lives.